I am a photographer who has seen much and still sees much - I hope! I trained (back in the days of film) with Floyd Gardner. He was difficult to work with at times, but brutally honest - a rare and wonderful commodity to be sure! Floyd helped me to develop a keen eye for good light and a thick skin - very important in this industry. Floyd was an amazing teacher with a gift for seeing beauty in the ordinary things of life. My passion is to create beauty by allowing the heart and soul of my subjects to be present in the finished photograph. I lean towards a documentary style of photography - especially where weddings are concerned. I love to shoot portraits and fashion, and believe there is much to be learned from studying the work of great fashion photographers like DeMarchelier and Penn. I am very much a people person...and I look forward to working with you.

Why should you work with me?

Because I am inventive, tenacious, demanding of myself, and easy to work with. Because I have been doing this long enough to know to take the work seriously and myself not too seriously.

I strive to deliver three things to my clients who trust me with their wedding day:

1 -- A beautiful collection of images that represent the beauty, spontaneity, romance, and excitement of the wedding day - an actual story of the day in images.

2 -- I strive to deliver beautifully finished and enhanced images of all the photographs that appear in the album.

3 -- And lastly, I strive to deliver a beautifully designed album as well - an album that tells the story from the first opening photograph to the turn of the last page with classic elegance, flair and a timeless quality to it..

Contact Info: http://www.jvgphoto.com or call me at 815 762 8312 or email me at jon@jvgphoto.com

"A photograph never grows old. You and I change, people change all through the months and years, but a photograph always remains the same. How nice to look at a photograph of mother or father taken many years ago. You see them as you remember them. But as people live on, they change completely. That is why I think a photograph can be kind."
-- Quote by Albert Einstein

"The question is not what you look at but what you see."
Henry David Thoreau

“Photography is a way of feeling, of touching, of loving. What you have caught on film is captured forever... it remembers little things, long after you have forgotten everything.”

Aaron Siskind

"Art must be free. Where there is no freedom, there is no Art." Arsène Bessette